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Big oil, dirty money & high stakes

Massive corporate contributions, illegal donations, corruption, law suits, police investigations... the stories about big money make BC politics sound like a soap opera, or as one New York Times reporter put it, "The Wild West of Political Cash." If you've been having trouble keeping the stories straight, here's the 101 on big money and its influence on our electoral system and political decision making in BC.

Big Money 101

First of all, corruption and scandal aside, BC is home to some of the weakest political donation laws in Canada. There are no limits on what individuals, corporations and organizations can donate to political parties. Shockingly, this includes foreign entities - meaning that any organization, anywhere in the world, can donate unlimited contributions to BC's political parties.

Who's getting what?

As you can imagine, the amount of money raised by the major political parties varies greatly. For example, over the last twelve years, the BC Liberals have raised over 100 million dollars, while the BC NDP have raised over 40 million, and the gap seems to be widening over time: in 2015, the BC Liberals declared 9.9 million, the BC NDP 3 million and the Green party just under $400,000. (You can get detailed information on all these numbers in this great article from DeSmog Blog) As far as the 2017 election war chests are concerned, its been estimated that BC Liberals may have out-fundraised the BCNDP by as much as five to one.

Oil and gas companies constitute just a few of the hundreds of corporations and foreign organizations who are making campaign contributions because they have a vested interest in keeping the Liberals in power. In one of the weirder examples that have come to light - a disturbing report by Dogwood Initiative titled, "Killing Lions for Money to Kill Bears," describes how the American organization Safari Club International donated $60,000 to Christie Clark's campaign upon learning that an NDP government would ban the commercial trophy hunting of the province's grizzly bears.

The vast majority (86%) of British Columbians are in favour of a ban on union and corporate donations, and so are the BCNDP and BC Greens. The NDP have already made many attempts to push these legislative changes through, while the Greens have banned corporate and union donations within their own party. Imagine living in a province where your vote counts more than cash from a foreign corporation! Something to think about when you go to the polls this May 9th!